Drilling is a key link of manufacturing carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) components. However, due to CFRP’s anisotropy and heterogeneity, effects of drilling induced axial force and hole-exit temperature are much more complicated than conventional metals, which always results in undesirable surface damages at hole exit hindering the engineering application of CFRP. Since the axial force and the hole-exit temperature are highly correlated to process parameters in drilling of CFRP, for effectively overcoming such difficulties, this study focuses on optimized selection of process parameters. The suitable ranges of the axial force and the hole-exit temperature are figured out, upon the specific analysis on the combined effects of the axial force and the hole-exit temperature on the formation of hole-exit surface damages. With that, through establishing the relations between the axial force, the hole-exit temperature, and the drilling parameters, the optimized drilling parameters are finally given. By experimental verifications, it is found that the optimized drilling parameters can control the axial force and the hole-exit temperature within the suitable ranges, and thereby effectively suppress the hole-exit surface damages in drilling of CFRP. The findings of this study will be helpful to further improve the drilling qualities of CFRP.
